Drinking Every Yard House Beer

In addition to enjoying good beer, I also enjoy hockey. I’m a Los Angeles Kings fan and season ticket holder, and this season (2010-2011) I’ve been able to make almost every home game so far. The bonus to going to games is that there is a Yard House restaurant across the street from Staples Center (where the LA Kings play), which also allows me to partake of a variety of different beers on game nights…and try to get through them all.

The Yard House restaurants are 29 locations in 10 states, with each location featuring around 150 beers on tap ranging from the Big 3 to a multitude of craft brews. In addition, their menu offers a variety of food choices that hasn’t disappointed me yet. But we’re here to discuss the beer.

With such a wide selection of beers on tap, choosing the Yard House in Los Angeles as my favorite post-game stop after a LA Kings’ home game was easy. When I first began stopping in for the celebratory or commiserative pint, depending on how the game went, I usually stuck to the safe beers that I knew. After awhile I learned that they had samplers available. Their samplers are a selection of 6 – 4 ounce beers, with two different “Tower” lists to choose from, changing the selections on each Tower every Tuesday. Ordering one of these samplers exposed me to different beers, and styles, that I otherwise may not have tried. After around 40 visits though, this wasn’t enough.

THE QUEST

I decided that I wanted to try them all. Each and every beer that the Yard House offered on tap. This was not going to be done in one night. For one thing, I didn’t want a liver transplant. Since I usually only visit on nights that the LA Kings are playing a home game it was somewhat easy to come up with the math.

150 beers / 40 games = 3.75 beers per game values are approximate

It seemed like a reasonable quest. Adding to the feasibility of the quest, I would allow a 4 oz. sampler glass to count towards the quest. My quest…my rules.

THE FAILURE

It was during the 2009-2010 NHL season that I first attempted this quest. Simply put, I failed. Due to being laid-off at work, a car accident, illnesses (personal & kids), and a variety of other reasons, I only made it to barely half the Kings’ home games. I abandoned the quest for the season.

BACK ON TRACK

The 2010-2011 season is going much better. I write this on the day of the LA Kings’ 27th home game of the season. I’ve only missed two games so far this season; one due to conflicting plans and the second due to my son being sick. Additionally, although I attended the game I missed a couple of opportunities to stop in at the Yard House post-game due to other events/obligations, or that I was attending the game with one or both my kids. (The Yard House is definitely a place I would take my kids to, and I have. But on these occasions they would usually accompany me to a mid-week game and I wanted to get them home since they had school the next day.) But, by my estimation* I’ve got about 60 beers left to get though with 15 games remaining; average of 4 beers per game.

Unfortunately, not every beer makes it to the sampler menu. Really, who needs a sampler of Budweiser, Bud Light, or Coors Light. But, the quest is for me to consume each and every beer on the menu, so I’m going to have to order pints of these at some point in the next 15 games. It also means someone else may be driving home from a few games. Hopefully I’ll get done ahead of the end of the regular season so that I can then revisit some of the beers that I liked, or try to figure out why there were some that I don’t.

FOLLOW MY PROGRESS

I’ll be updating my “yard house beer quest” page within 24 hours after each game. Come back and visit for the updates, or you can follow me on Twitter to see when I make the update, or see what I’m drinking while I’m there.

And don’t forget to wish me luck.

* My “yard house beer quest” page is updated with what I’ve consumed. There are still a couple/few receipts that I need to review and then add those beers to the list. If you watch the list grow by 18 beers in the next 24 hours it’s not because I drank that many tonight; I just added a few from past visits as well.